Twitter-owned live-streaming app Periscope has announced some changes to groups on the platform, providing additional functionality which may have benefits for brand usage.
The first update is the addition of Closed Groups. As explained by Periscope:
"Closed groups allow the creator of a group to be its sole administrator, meaning that only the administrator will be able to add or remove members and change the group title. To create a closed group or close a group after creating it, turn on the "closed group" setting from the management screen. If a group is closed, you will see this next to the group title."
The option adds to the Groups function Periscope added last November, which enables broadcasters to share within a much more controlled, tight-knit group - an option that could make people feel more comfortable about actually going live in the first place.
Closed Groups is the next level of this, and could be useful to businesses looking to broadcast more specific content or facilitate private community interaction. It may also be a means to broadcast content to paid subscribers only.
In addition to this, Periscope's also added in a new option so users can choose which groups they join.
Sounds like it should be a given, right? I'll let Periscope explain:
"We're also giving you the choice to accept or decline group invites; you'll no longer get added to a group automatically. You can opt into this change by turning off the "Auto-accept Group Invites" setting in your profile. If you opt-out of automatically joining groups, you won't see any notifications in that group until you accept the invite to join. You can always make changes to groups in Settings under Notifications."
The changes have been implemented as a result of community feedback, so there was clearly a need for the group membership clarification.
The updates come on the back of a note late last week that all users can now broadcast through Periscope Producer.
Anyone can now broadcast with Periscope Producer - available on Android, iOS and web! https://t.co/xwnkrVYdPy
- Periscope Help (@periscopehelp) February 23, 2017
Initially only available to select broadcasters when it was released last October, Periscope Producer enables users to stream content direct to Periscope via a wide range of devices beyond the basic mobile device - including professional grade cameras, studio editing rigs, satellite trucks, desktop streaming software, games - and even VR headsets.
This provides significantly more options on the quality and creative front - we were first alerted to Producer in testing with live-streamer Alex Pettit back in September.
okay @periscopeco i see you with your fancy graphics / external video sources feature
- Sam Sheffer (@samsheffer) September 1, 2016
I WANT THIShttps://t.co/RQDOPTPGKm
As you can see, it broadens the scope of what's possible in your broadcast - it won't be for everyone, as you do need some technical skill to utilize these tools, but it's now available to all broadcasters.
So, cool, right? Periscope's getting some new features to play around with and improve your streams. Oh - except all of these features are available on Facebook Live already.
That's right, Facebook is moving much quicker on live-streaming - they introduced Live for Groups back in April, and have had options for Live broadcasts via third party tools in place since around the same time. That's not to criticize for Periscope for improving their tools - all such options provide benefit. But it does highlight the battle they're facing with Zuck and Co on this front - Facebook is bigger, with a larger audience, and increasingly, more tools and options.
Twitter is where things happen, no doubt, it's where people turn to for real-time updates. Hopefully they can continue to translate the emphasis over to live-streaming and make it a more essential offering, even in the face of strong competition.